By Jamie Epstein, TMCnet Web Editor

Ranked as the third largest telecommunications company in the United States due to its assortment of recent mergers, CenturyLink owns and operates nearly 173,000 networks miles as well as powers 17 data centers. Currently, Telarus (News - Alert) is touted as the only master agent that can quote the company’s services in real-time by leveraging its innovative tool coined GeoQuote. The master agent benefits significantly from CenturyLink’s team of experts who know the exact steps to take when it comes to dealing with intricate deals and provisioning.

Just recently, headlines were made when it was revealed that the telecommunications provider would soon be officially debuting savvisdirect, a robust portal that assists end-users including businesses, IT administrators and application developers in purchasing an array of cloud services via the Web that meet their individual expectations.

This portal is ideal for small to medium-sized business (SMBs) that are searching for SaaS (News - Alert), virtual servers, and storage offerings that will give them a competitive edge over the growing number of businesses in their respective industry.

"By offering a unique, frictionless approach to cloud, our goal is to make cloud adoption – from learning to purchasing to onboarding – simple and affordable," said Andrew Higginbotham, president of savvisdirect, in a recent article. "This is a cloud every business can use."

It was only last year that CenturyLink acquired Savvis for a sum of approximately $2.5 billion, gaining access to sell its portfolio of cloud-based services.

Higginbotham added, “Practicality and reliability are central to the always-on and consumption-based experience of savvisdirect. By offering a unique, frictionless approach to cloud, our goal is to make cloud adoption – from learning to purchasing to onboarding – simple and affordable. This is a cloud every business can use.”

Currently, the user interface is in the public beta testing phase and the tentative general availability release date in North America will be later this year, while Europe and Asia will see this product hit the market sometime in 2013.

Edited by Allison Boccamazzo